Confused Tears

Blue Tears On A Bronze Pillow
Maybe

Well, bit of a lazy day today, but I got some stuff done, which is always good - to finish the week off, and all that jazz.

Firstly, I stained The Pearly Dewdrop One and got that dried, before bronzing the top and then going for a blueish corrosion with added copperfied sprinkles. And very nice it looks too.

That will settle down over the weekend and I can hopefully finish the finish early next week.

From there it's not too bad, as I have pretty much everything, though I'm thinking that I may change my mind slightly on the bridge, and go for a cut down 'shorty' Telecaster one.

Why this change of heart?

Well, as I mentioned I got the Confused One back with a few issues, which proved easily solved, but while I was at it I replaced the Stratish bridge with a Shorty and very nice it is too.

Confused, Yet Extra Twangeee

It certainly has a bit more zing and not a little zong without any of that there worrisome zeng 

Can't be doing with zeng.

All in all, I'm quietly liking it, and was wondering if one of those wouldn't just be the thing for Pearly too.

Not that I have another, but that is simply sortable as well.

In fact where Pearl goes, there is one more presentational delight to come, but that can wait a while yet.



So there we are, another week without masses of progress, but I'm hoping Pearly will be playable by this time next week. It's taken years, but I have the horrible feeling that this might really be it.

La la laaa

Sold: The Confused One

The Confused One is a guitar that has already lived a couple of lives. It has been battered and scratched, torn and stamped on and with a final indignity has been attacked with acid. You have to feel sorry for it.

For the record it is a swamp ash bodied Telecaster Esquire with La Cabronita tendencies. The back and sides have been stained and finished with hard wax oil. The top attacked with a good measure of active iron paint, which dribbles beautifully over the edges. This in turn has been subjected to our Home Brew Acid, which has caused it to spectacularly rust in blooming oranges and browns. To finish off hard wax oil has sealed the top (and also dribbled messily over the sides and onto the back.)

It is fair to say, if you are looking for pristine, this truly isn’t your kettle.

Other than the finish, there is a single Gretsch Filter’tron at the bridge with all the expected twangy goodness, and a specially made Mojo Pickups Esquire wiring loom which gives three tones from the single pickup. The neck one is a total joy.

Other than that it is aged Wilkinson tuners and neck plate, a cut down Wilkinson Tele bridge for the thru body stringing and Ye Olde Witches Hat knobs for style and elegance.


*


To be clear, The Confused One is an utterly unique guitar, and there will never, ever, be another made. It is signed and numbered, entirely hand built and finished cooler than a slo-mo run across the pebbled beach at Portishead. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.

**** SOLD *****
Technical Stuff:

Type: Cilla’s Rusty Iron Guitar

Electrics: Gretsch Filter’tron, Mojo Esquire Wiring Loom

Guitar Type: Fender Telecaster/La Cabronita Style

Construction: Swamp Ash body, maple/Rosewood neck

Strings: Nickel 10s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: Volume, Tone, 3-way-switch

Special Stuff: Certificate of Authenticity, Builder Signed and Numbered, All Wrapped with our Trademark Jooky Wrapping.

Serial Number: JGE#64

RSP: £799

Introducing: The Confused One

Well, after mucho dubious delay, I'm pleased to introduce you to The Confused One, half Telecaster, half La Cabronita and a smidgen of rust and twangy goodness to see you right.

From the top, it is:

1. A Swamp Ash Tele Body, that has been stained and waxed, before being viciously attacked with a pot porri of active iron paint, a good couple of cupfuls of the house home brew acid to make it rust and drip, and then a nice hard wax finish.

2. A rather fetching maple/rosewood neck, soft C of shape and 14" of camber.

3. Strung thru stringing with a hard tail bridge.

4. Traditional Esquire wiring courtesy of Marc Ransley at Mojo Pickups - with a tweaked neck position that is dee and vine.

5. A Gretsch Filter'tron pickup at the bridge...

..and there we are.

As for how it plays, well it twangs like a good 'un, scrapes it's teeth across your chest with a touch of dirt and generally gets well creamy when a bit of fuzz kicks in.

The action is low and fast (even with me playing it) and it is a lovely weight.

All in all, I'm really rather chuffed with it, even if I still can't quite tell you what sort of guitar it be.

La la laaaa

One String On My Confusion

Well, I never quite got as far as I had hoped with The Confused One, but I should finish it tomorrow now that the tuners and neck are in place and all that is left is a bit of a set-up, strings and string trees.

Can't wait to hear what the Gretsch Filter'tron sounds like with Mr Mojo's Magic Esquire Wiring, but it looks pretty good in a meaty macho kinda way.

The bratskis got their fotos took along with screaming classmates and The Tickled Pink One, and I had a farewell twang or three with the old girl before I passed her on to Simon this evening. All good stuff, has to be said.

As I can see light gathering, I dug out the wood and templates for The Pearly Dewdrop One which once the Confused are enlightened is officially next-on-the-list.

It's going to be good, I can just tell.

And I am never wrong.

Probably.

Of course the fact that Marcy Mojo has sent the pickup and wiring gives me a kick in the right direction too.

La la laaa

Back to the Day Job

Well, all the Tickled Pink shenanigans should move away from Jookyland tomorrow, and organisational bobbins apart, I'm hoping that I can reset my focus and get The Confused One finished.

I had changed my mind about the tuners, so now have to re-rout the holes in the headstock (me least favourite job in the world of Jook), but other than that it should just be a case of nailing the neck on and we'll be clover-bound if not quite upto our necks in it.

I have since put the bridge on, but can't find the camera so you'll have to imagine it for now.

It'll be nice once this one is done, as apart from The Chi Chi One which is (surprisingly) waiting for parts, I should have the decks cleared so that I can start chopping The Pearly Dewdrop One out of a piece of Alder, and maybe even do something about the others too. Well, you never know.

But back to the fones..

La la laaa

WIP: The Confused One

Well, I'm pleased to say that The Tickled Pink One is 99% there, but as I am awaiting a final ingredient or seven to make you all go 'Wow' and 'Cor blimey' and generally nod in *that* old familiar yet special way, you'll have to wait a little longer for it's unveiling.

It's all about the grin, that's the important thing.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you the WIP of The Confused One, which is looking delightfully tattered and torn, and I've really taken rather a shine to it.

It is another swamp ash body, with a back that has been mahogany stained and waxed, yet the top, and dribbling over the edge, is a stunningly cool rusted iron finish.

Other than that, the neck looks like it is likely to be a total gem, and the Gretsch Filtertron pickup looks the Mutt's Nuts, as it were. Can't wait to hear what it sounds like.

Other than even more all of that, young Marcy Mojo has done me a nice Esquire wiring loom so that we get some joy from the tones and there we be.

In fact all it needs is a bit of solder to join up the dots, and then a bridge. Don't ask me how, but I forgot to get one, which is sadly fundamental to the whole putting strings on vibe. Oh, I forgot the neck plate too, tut-di-di-tut.

Still, other than that trifle, it be looking good and shouldn't take long from this point forward.

So is it an Esquire or is it a La Cabronita? I don't know, it sort of goes both ways. Double the fun and twice the opportunities. Wish I'd realised that sooner. Might have made adolescence more interesting.

La la laaaa

Love, Love, Love....

Well, a first instalment of parts arrived today, so other than staining the Fallen, I managed to put strap pins and bridges on to the others (remembering to drill ground wire holes handraulically), and an Esquire plate on The Confused One - think I'll leave that as plain black - and I have started to smother the 'plate for The TV Dinner One in bronze, with copper and acid to follow.

Got spanked on Scalextric by the six-year-old though, so it wasn't all good.

As far as The Tickled Pink One goes, I made holes in the Fab 4 scratchplate with an old soldering iron, chopped off the excess melted placcy stuff with a Stanley knife, and then screwed it to the body with old and rusty screws.

Somebody asked me whether I would be playing safe with the Tickled Pink One, so I think I probably am. I haven't even thought about setting it alight yet.

Though....nah. better not.

Anyway, I followed this with a nice circle of rusty screws all around the body as, well, I liked the idea and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Tis all good.

And that is about as far as I can go right now. I did forget a bridge for The Confused One, so I need to sort that out, and I'm still waiting for control plates, electrosockets and a few other bits, but they should be here tomorrow, as will the pickups and wiring from Marcy Mojo.

Another quick thank you, firstly to Marc at Mojo who has donated the pickup and loom for The Tickled Pink One, and to ESBlonde from Music Radar-land, who sent me some strings to go with the guitar on it's travels and £20 which has already hit the Just Giving page. It is really cool how many people are chipping in, in lots of ways, and long may it last. This is before there even is a guitar or we've started to get it moving around the country.

But there we go, the brat will be back at school the 'morrow, so hopefully I'll get tuners installed along with string trees and necks connecting to bodies. Oh, and I need to finish the finish on The Fallen One, that is pretty and cool too.

La la laaaa

Getting Confused

Well, trying to tie a Tickled Pink Ribbon around the country seems to be starting well, with 18 people signing up at the last count, though I'm glad young Jools is doing the organisational honours on that one.

Me, I prefer a simpler life so I'm going to stick to screwing up guitars instead.

If however, you fancy a strum for a good cause, you can find out more HERE.

And speaking of which, The Tickled Pink One is awaiting the last few pieces of the jiggyandsore, so I turned my eyes onto The Confused One and finished the bodywork on that baby, and I'm pretty chuffed with how the rustiness has turned out. I tried a different way of finishing this to how I've done them in the past and it has retained more of the orangeness, which is nice. It looks quite cloudy in fact.

I've realised I haven't actually got a neck for this one, so that is something to sort out this week.

As for other things, I've still got a bit of work to do on the finish for The TV Dinner One, which sick bratskis apart might well get done today.

But other than that, self-same-sick-bratski stops general play today, which makes a hnge fom the rain methinks.

Heh ho

La la laaaa

Waxing Literally

Well, today is a bit-more-of-the-same in so far as I'm still trying to move The TV Dinner, Confused and Tickled Pink Ones in a forwardly synchronised direction.

As you can hopefully tell from the foto, I now have three bodies where the back (and the front of TV) have all been stained and now treated with a goodly coating of Hard Wax Oil. That will sit around for four hours before I can do another coat, which is OK. I need beauty sleep.

Once that is done - tomorrow hopefully all will be dry, I'll stain the TV, throw acid in the face of the Confused and generally pamper with fine fabrics the Tickled Pink. I told you I was intent on starting my own religion.

As for today, while those babies are drying, I have a couple of necks that needs a tad of fret-love, and in the case of the rosewood one a good dollop of oil too. So that should keep me out of trouble.

Probably

La la laaa

Bodies Piled High

Well, no post at all today, but I did dig out the bodies for The Tickled Pink and TV Dinner Ones, and tomorrow sees them as well as The Confused One getting a bit of body work done.

The Tickled Pink is of course destined for a pink-of-ribboned top, but the back and sides are going to be dark stained and waxed, so that is numero uno on the list.

Similarly, The Confused One which needs a bit of sanding first, will be a darker hue to show off the top which is going to be groovily acid fried. Obviously I still haven't carved out the control plate hole yet, but will before I do anything much else.

As for The TV Dinner One, that is destined for a rosewood stain which looks good on walnut, clearly, though I doubt that will be the end of it's travails, as nothing in the Teensy Kingdom of Jook is ever so simple.

So that is for tomorrow, and hopefully necks will also be apparent.

I seem to be on a bit of a Tele binge at the moment, not really sure why, but there we are.

La la laaaa

Painting Confusing Rainbows

Well, sometimes I just want to get away from all the high powered shenanigans that go with running an internationally renowned conglomerate like Jooky Corpse Industries Inc Plc and I decide to just break the mould (mold?) and do-something-more-interesting instead.

And as I have the forlornly knackered body from The B Movie One sat in a corner, I thought that I should do it the fave of a little resuscitation and rampant enviro-politik..

And as it happens I have a Gretsch pickup going begging, and even a spare Tele neck that I bought for something and then forgot about, so 1 + 1 + 1 = 4 in any lingo, so what is a poor boy to do?

Anyway, I thought that if I cut out a hole for a Tele Control plate, put a nice Esquire pickguard on, the nice single Filter'tron at the bridge, Fanny would be my Uncle and Bob, well, Bob as ever is confused.

I'll call it The Confused One in his honour

La la laaa